


help me polarize

by raine_go_away



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Pining, and then ashton and michael are in gryffindor, and then calum is a ravenclaw, but he belongs in hufflepuff, half-blood!Calum, half-veela!Luke, it's a family thing though, luke is a slytherin, metamorphmagus!Michael, sort of like a coming of age sort of thing, super intense pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 06:26:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6184198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raine_go_away/pseuds/raine_go_away
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hemmings family has a long history of being in the Slytherin house, every single member cunning with that glint in their blue eyes but not terribly wicked. They were experts at prevaricating and manipulation, but then there’s doe eyed Luke who trips over his robes around the house and apologizes to tables when he bumps into them.</p><p>-- or the Harry Potter AU that no one asked for with part-veela!Luke crushing on golden Gryffindor boy Ashton for his entire career at Hogwarts</p>
            </blockquote>





	help me polarize

**Author's Note:**

> I FORGOT I WROTE THIS HONESTLY but it was an AU i loved because veela Luke speaks to me so strongly. also, i fucked up the genetics part of it all. Luke should be a quarter veela like Fleur is, and Liz should be half veela, but I fucked up and here we are. it's not THAT important. just enjoy the AU

Luke wasn’t scared to start school. No, he was terrified to the core. He’s only eleven, the baby of the entire Hemmings family, and every time all of the relatives come to dinner and whisk their wands around to pour more wine as they talk for hours, they keep saying that he’s a very promising lad.

But he really isn’t, at least he doesn’t think he is. There’s Jack and Ben, and they’re ten times more great than Luke would ever be considering Jack is a Slytherin prefect, and Ben got an O on his NEWTS and Luke just knows that he will never live up to that.

The Hemmings family has a long history of being in the Slytherin house, every single member cunning with that glint in their blue eyes but not terribly wicked. They were experts at prevaricating and manipulation, but then there’s doe eyed Luke who trips over his robes around the house and apologizes to tables when he bumps into them.

The night before he and Jack left for Hogwarts, Luke knocked on his brother’s bedroom door in the middle of the night until his brother sleepily opened it for him. Jack squinted in the dim light, shifting his weight back and forth before sighing and leaving the door open, but retreating back to bed. At this point, Jack was so accustomed to little Luke knocking on his door at random times at night that he never asked why anymore, just left the door open for Luke to go inside.

And that’s what he did. He scurried into the room and shut the door behind him, turning to where Jack had his comforter held up, waiting for Luke to climb in. This was routine at this point, and once Luke was on the mattress, Jack lowered the comforter with a sigh. 

“Are you bringing that blanket with you tomorrow?” he asked in a groggy voice, shifting around to get comfortable again and accustomed to the new body taking up space he once had. 

Luke’s eyes darted down to the pale blue blanket he had clenched in his fingers the entire time, almost forgetting it was there. It was old, tattered, and the edges had holes in them from years of Luke’s anxious fingers fiddling with the soft fabric that he has loved ever since he was a mere baby. He felt his heart rate pick up as he thought about the other students in his house finding out about it, and the teasing it would ensure, but also his heart pounded at the mere thought of leaving it behind.

“I.. I’m bringing it,” he stuttered out, and Jack nodded, his eyes closed at this point.

“Good,” his brother mumbled, the side of his face practically buried in his pillow. “I was scared you wouldn’t and I would have to pack it for you.”

Luke could feel the corners of his lips pulling up in a small smile at the thought of Jack knowing what was best for him and letting him have the little baby blanket at his new school, even if it meant others finding out and endless teasing for Jack for having a pansy for an older brother.

“What’s up, buttercup?” Jack’s voice was teasingly lightly in the dark, his eyes peeking open as he grinned at his brother, easing the nerves that Luke could feel tightly coiled in his stomach. 

After a couple moments of hesitation, Luke just managed to choke out, “I’m just.. scared.”

This caused Jack to shift slightly in the dark, sitting up slightly, a protective look on his face. “What’s there to be scared of, Luke? You have magic in your veins, you showed signs earlier than us all. And plus you got those genes from Mum that the rest of us didn’t. You’ll make us proud. You’re going to be great, I promise you.”

At the mentions of Luke’s.. traits, he squirmed slightly uncomfortably, his cheeks flaming red as he struggled to take even breaths. “I just.. don’t want to go in the wrong house.”

Jack was silent for a couple of minutes before sighing, “Look, Luke, I know you’re scared of disappointing Mum and Dad, but you should be sorted in a house right for you.”

“But I don’t want to be more different!” Luke nearly cried out, but covered his mouth in fear of waking Ben from his dragon like slumber or have their Mum pounding on the door to go to sleep immediately. 

Jack’s eyes were sympathetic, even in the dark as they softened, and Luke was just so grateful that none of his abilities had an effect on his brother, that he wouldn’t baby him just because he felt the instinct too from the magic in Luke’s voice. “I personally think you should be a Hufflepuff,” Jack whispered quietly, and Luke felt his heart fall in absolute fear of the sorting tomorrow and being the first Hemmings to ever be sorted into a house other than Slytherin, and into Hufflepuff of all of them.

But Jack noticed Luke’s internal panic, “I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” his words fast and almost silent from how low his voice was. “When I was sorted my first year, the sorting hat told me I belonged in Ravenclaw.” That’s when Luke’s eyes widened because he always viewed Jack as the perfect Slytherin, hell, Jack was a prefect for the house for crying out loud. “But the hat knew of the disappointment I would face from our family, so he put me in Slytherin. It might be the same for you.”

And Luke prayed it would be, that it would put him into Slytherin so he wouldn’t be more out of the ordinary for his family.

Luke was quiet for a little bit, and Jack settled back down against the pillows on his bed. “Are you okay now?” he asked in a rumbling whisper and Luke found himself nodding, because yes, his heart rate was even, his breathing wasn’t rapid, and the grip on his blanket was looser.

“Okay, good. Now go to sleep, you have a big day ahead of you. And also, you won’t be able to do this during the school year,” and Jack’s voice was almost sad, regretful, and guilty altogether and Luke just flashed his older brother a small smile in the dark, the last one he would give until they were home for the holidays or for summer even.

\--

The next morning, Luke was being lead through King’s Cross Station by the tugging hand of his mother, and he kept his pale blue eyes trained on the ground. He could feel stares being averted in their direction, the magic pulling their eyes closer, and he just wanted to shrink into the ground.

“Lucas, stand up straight,” Liz’s harsh voice snapped and he nearly tripped over his feet as he struggled to nod and rise up to his full height which was barely above his mother’s shoulder. 

Luke always found it worse when you could see everyone’s faces, could see the glaze in their eyes as they locked onto them and couldn’t help but stare at the two of them in public, especially the poor muggles. Some men received smacks from their respected partners, and the gaze of some of them made Luke’s skin squirm uncomfortable since they were so much older.

Luckily, the people of wizard families didn’t mind seeing their husband or wife’s eyes being locked onto Liz Hemmings, she was a known name in the magic families surrounding London. She was the only half-Veela known of in England, having moved from Australia to attend Hogwarts when she was eleven as well. And she stayed when she found Andrew, the only man within the school able to look past the Veela qualities and actually insulted her the moment he met her. Somehow they got married, Luke thinks it was mainly because Liz liked being loved for something other than her beauty.

But while the families were aware of Liz, they weren’t very aware of Luke. He was only a quarter-Veela, all of his siblings were. Except with him, it actually displayed magical traits. Male Veelas were rare, so that’s why Liz kept Luke hidden from most of the public eye, constantly telling him that there were too many sick people in the world.

It wasn’t until now that Luke understood.

\--

On the train platform, Liz readjusted Luke’s hair for the fifteenth time, kneeling down to hold him close and he just felt his cheeks heat up violently. “Mum,”he protested, stomping his foot as his eyes shyly cast themselves to the ground. 

“I know, I know, but you’re my last little baby, Lukey,” and he made a face at the nickname, his father laughing a little bit quietly from behind his wife. Luke shot him a glare, it powerful and actually menacing and the magic in Luke was enough to make the laughter stop.

“I need you to promise that you’ll write, because Jack doesn’t anymore, but you love me, right, Lukey?”

“Yes, Mum. I love you, but I actually need to leave --”

“Oh, but before I forget!” and she threw a wrapped cardboard box into his hands before turning him towards the train. “Now, remember that spell I taught you in case anyone get’s too handsy with you or tries to take advantage of you!”

That’s when Luke started feeling smaller, as he walked up the steps of the train, not even having the energy to turn and tell her off for that comment because suddenly he was surrounded by people on the train, moving from compartments and shoving past him and he felt like he couldn’t breathe in the small space around him. 

Groups of girls would pass him and once they were behind him, he could hear them erupt into giggles and hushed whispers as he kept moving slowly through the train. As he passed compartments with open doors, he could see the animated faces of reunited friends in bright conversations about their summers suddenly freeze up in awe when they met his eyes and he would immediately advert his own in fear.

He suddenly wished he knew where Jack was so they could sit together, but Jack sat with the prefects and Luke.. Luke was a first year. He bet he could talk them into letting him sit in the prefect compartments, the Veela charm being helpful for once in his life, but that didn’t seem fair, and this was an experience that everyone had gone through at least once.

Eventually, he got to the back of the train, but that was also the moment it decided to start moving and he was flung backwards. The only thing he managed to keep steady was his hands on the package from his Mum as he nearly fell straight on his ass. As he was falling, he was thankful that no one else was in this specific section of the train as they had all found compartments towards the front, but he was wrong. He felt a pair of arms catch him and hold him steady until the movement of the train seemed to even out as it got into a constant motion.

Luke felt his eyes widen and his cheeks darken as the person’s hand didn’t let go for a while, and he mumbled out a quiet, “Thank you,” before turning slightly to have his eyes meet a red and gold tie.

Then his eyes found dimples, and then a pair of bright hazel eyes that were crinkling towards the corners. “Don’t mention it, it happens to the best of us,” he explained with ease and Luke couldn’t find words to say, and just nodded dumbly. And this time, it was Luke doing the staring as the other boy just offered him a small smile in return.

But the moment was thankfully broken when a compartment door was thrown open and a boy with red hair to match his tie stuck his head out, “Ashton, c’mon,” and with his harsh words, the boy’s red hair actually darkened to black in merely a second, leaving Luke dumbfounded, blinking in shock.

Chameleon boy caught him staring and his eyes narrowed nearly like slits.. or actually like slits, like a cats in the bright sunlight as he practically snarled. “You’re not the only special one, Veela.”

His words had Luke’s face falling almost instantly as he stumbled backwards again and turned quickly to open the nearest compartment and just threw himself in it, and thankfully this one was empty.

Quietly, he eased himself onto the seat, pressing his back against the window and pulling his feet onto the chair in a way that would have his Mum scolding him as he brought his knees to his chest.

“Michael was that necessary?” he could hear Ashton’s muffled voice from the aisle and chameleon boy - Michael- just snorted. 

“The asshole needs to learn that he’s not all that.”

And Luke could feel tears welling up in his eyes, because what did he do wrong?

\--

At that point of the train ride, Luke had been asleep, the feeling of the movement just lulling him to sleep easily. He didn’t know how long he was asleep, all he knew was that he was being awoken by a pair of deep, chocolate eyes poking through the door of his empty compartment after tapping on it a bit.

The boy in the door cleared his throat, “Um, can I sit in here?” his voice evidently awkward as he motioned to all the extra space that Luke had at the ready.

“Oh, um.. y-yeah, of course,” Luke stuttered out, moving around to sit up a bit more as the boy in the door simply brightened up like the sun and let himself into the compartment, carrying only what seemed to be a backpack of muggle style from the way it was sewn and accessorized with stickers and patches that would have Luke’s Mum turning her nose away in disgust.  
“I’m Calum,” the boy introduced easily in a sweet voice that had Luke relaxing a little bit. But his eyes were still staring at the plenty of patches on Calum’s backpack, trying to read all the unfamiliar names and make sense of them all, his eyebrows knitting in confusion. “Oh, um.. I’m a halfblood,” he explained sheepishly, tucking the backpack away in the corner of the compartment and Luke just blinked.

“Oh! That’s cool, I just, I um.. your bag, I just.. I’ve never seen anything like it,” his cheeks flushing a dark red and instead of laughing mockingly like he expected, Calum just grinned.

“My dad almost murdered me for bringing it with me, but my mum thinks it’s good that I represent my muggle side and all,” and he began shifting around to get comfortable, and Luke just nodded as the boy stared at him in a gentler way than the way the other older men did in the train station.

Luke fell into his usual silence, his eyes distracted by the window of the train compartment until Calum let out a little laugh that startled Luke as he stared at Calum in slight alarm. “What’s your name?” he asked in a gentle tone.

His cheeks were definitely crimson at this point as he stared at the carpet, “I’m Luke,” he said in a quiet voice, definitely more than a little embarrassed at this point. “And um, I’m a quarter Veela...?” he offered hesitantly, considering Calum gave him his blood status when he introduced himself, Luke figured he should do the same.

Part of him was scared that he would react just as that Michael boy did, in disgust, but instead Calum’s eyes widened a little bit. 

“Seriously? Shit, wow, I’ve only read about you guys in books, oh my god. That’s wicked,” and he wore this sort of grin that helped fill Luke with a giddy feeling and he started to think that maybe being a Veela wasn’t all that bad.

\--

He and Calum talked the entire train ride to Hogwarts. Since Calum was a half-blood, he had such interesting stories about the muggle world that Luke had never known.

“You mean you’ve gone to school before this?” Luke had asked in shock and Calum just kind of nodded, giving him a funny look.

“Oh, yeah! Where else am I going to learn to write?” and he phrased it to be a rhetorical question, but then slowly realized that Luke didn’t understand. “Where did you learn to write?”

“My mum taught me,” Luke answered shortly. “And then we had tutors come by the manor.” His entire childhood was extraordinarily sheltered. He was just learning that now as he learned about all the fun things that Calum has gotten to try. 

The life Calum lived seemed so exciting though. He said he would go to concerts now that his sister was performing. His sister, Mali-Koa, didn’t have the same magical abilities that Calum inherited from his father, but Calum swore his sister might as well be a siren. 

“You should hear her sing, she’s amazing,” then, Calum sort of looked at his lap, and Luke realized he must have been homesick despite having just left, barely an hour into their journey. 

Luke just nodded, taking Calum’s word for it, and the two just kept talking the entire time. They took the boats across the lake to the school together, and stood together when waiting to be sorted. Calum was sorted into Ravenclaw, and then there was Luke.

When his name was shouted across the Great Hall, he could feel everyone staring because here was the next Hemmings. There was a murmur from the Slytherin table, and when he glanced over, he only saw Jack waving at him with a small smile. 

He took a deep breath, and stepped up. His legs were shaking violently underneath him and the sorting hat was placed on his head. Nothing was shouted across the Great Hall the way it had been for Calum and the others before them. Instead, it was dead silent, and Luke stared at his shoes while his hands gripped the edge of the seat until his knuckles had to be white.

“A mind like yours belongs in Hufflepuff,” came an eery whisper in his head. Luke felt his cheeks heat up and he ducked his chin down.

“I know,” he replied in a whisper. 

“But your family wants Slytherin.”

“I know.”

“Is there anything I should know before I place you?”

That question took Luke a moment to reply to. He held his breath and eventually said, “I don’t want to be any more different than I am already.”

There was a pause again, and the whisper in his head said what sounded like, “Very well, Veela,” and the next thing he knew, the word “Slytherin” was roaring through the empty air. 

Luke plastered on a smile, and hurried to the tables before his legs gave out from under him, and sat in a seat where his back would be directly across from Calum’s, because when he saw the faces of his housemates, he already knew he didn’t truly belong.

\--

The very first night in the dorms, Luke stared at the bottom of the mattress from the bunk above his, and held the covers up to his chin, just laying there.

There was no light from the moon from the windows, just the murky waters of the bottom of the lake and occasionally movement in the algae that made Luke’s heart jump in his chest. The dormitories were extremely cold and damp. Hardly anyone spoke in the common room, all poured over books, but would leave with snickers falling from their lips as old friends caught each other up on their summers.

Luke had heard stories about the Gryffindor common room and how it was so lively, rich with rugs, and always housing a brilliant fire in the mantle, and Luke wanted to be there instead of this dark, dreary place.

He wanted to go lay in bed with Jack so he could fall asleep, but he knew he couldn’t. So he would just sneak his hand underneath his pillow to feel the soft fabric of the blanket he brought with him and wish he was back home.

\--

He and Calum spent their first year running around the castle together, laughing, and being red in the cheeks. Calum had tried out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and made it as the keeper. Jack had mentioned that Luke try it too, but Luke couldn’t even keep his balance on a broom so it was a lost cause.

Luke didn’t even enjoy watching the matches like the entire rest of the school. He usually just spent those afternoons in the library studying because Calum never needed to study, he just naturally got it, and Luke did for the most part, he just liked extra practice. Also, it was easier to busy himself with his books than try to socialize with the rest of his House. 

However, one time Calum dragged him into the stands to watch a Hufflepuff and Gryffindor match. And that’s where Luke saw him again, the boy who he ran into on the train, flying around on a broom with his colorful haired friend.

They were fooling around, those two. They were trying to do upside down loops and dying with laughter, one of them, the caramel haired one, would hang from his broom upside down by using his knee around the broomstick. 

The entire Gryffindor section of stands were laughing at the boy, and Luke just made the assumption that the boy was popular.

So, naturally, he nudged Calum with his shoulder. It took a couple of nudges and a shove for his friend to be distracted from the game and he gave Luke a weird look.

“Who is he?” Luke finally got to ask, pointing to the boy who was currently standing up on his broomstick, trying to do it on one leg in a way that will probably end with him falling to his death, but he was doing it anyway.

“Oh, that’s Ashton Irwin, he’s a second year, but he’s Gryffindor’s seeker,” Calum explained with ease, even going a step further to point at the boy who currently had bright blue hair. “And that’s Michael Clifford. They’re best mates and all that.”

Luke glanced over at Calum and noticed the way his eyes seemed a bit glazed over and starry as they stared at Michael.

“Oh,” was all Luke said in the end.

“Why did you want to know?” Calum asked, a smirk settling on his lips as he raised an eyebrow in his friend’s direction. Luke felt like his cheeks were flushing, but he knew they weren’t considering he never got red, but he wore a small smile that gave himself away.

“Do you know them?” Calum tried, suddenly more interested in Luke than he was in the game, something that was new for the boy.

“Well, no,” Luke admitted, looking down at the people sitting in front of them and just giving a half-hearted shrug. “But I literally ran into Ashton on the train, and Michael doesn’t like me.”

Luke couldn’t help but notice the way his friend’s face seemed to fall at that new knowledge. “Is Michael mean to you?” and his voice sounded impossibly small.

“I mean, no, not really. He just doesn’t like me,” Luke tried to explain, but frankly, he didn’t understand it much either.

Calum just nodded, looking away and back at the game. “Do you know why?”

Luke tried to think back to the incident, and he could only summon up the image of hazel eyes being impossibly close to his and not much else that would explain why Michael held a strong distaste towards him. “I think he said something about me being, you know,” Luke mentioned, making a motion with his hands.

Calum just sort of nodded, because he did know, and no one else at the school besides Jack knew, but obviously Michael seemed to be able to tell right off the bat. “That’s weird,” Calum eventually decided aloud. 

“Why?” Luke asked as he suddenly remembered to actually look at the game and found himself ducking as a pack of people on broomsticks flew by overhead.

“He’s a metamorphmagus, so he would know about being a bit unusual too, so it’s kind of hypocritical, you know?”

Luke supposed it was.

Even after having Jack and now Calum explain the rules of Quidditch to him, Luke still didn’t find it all that interesting. So, he just spent the entire time watching Ashton as he flew around on the search for the snitch.

At some point in the game, Ashton actually looked over at at Luke, and they were making eye contact. He was nervously smiling, feeling a lot more self conscious as he held the eye contact. 

Then, suddenly, Ashton started surging forward on his broom, going straight for Luke. Luke felt his eyes widen, and he ducked as Ashton went straight overhead. Only a couple of seconds later, the entire Gryffindor side erupted into cheers as the announcer cheered over the intercom that Ashton Irwin had caught the golden snitch.

The golden snitch that was hiding behind Luke. The golden snitch that Ashton was staring at and not Luke. He watched as the boy celebrated and Michael knocked his shoulders into Ashton’s repeatedly.

Despite having the magic in his eyes and everything in his body, Ashton looked right past him. And if his veela blood can’t draw Ashton in, Luke knows that he can’t do it on his own. He has nothing to bring him in. Ashton’s best friend hated Luke. He had nothing. 

Ashton would never notice him again, so Luke just felt his heart sink down with that realization.

**Author's Note:**

> leave comments and kudos and maybe I will feel inspired to write more for you all :)
> 
> you can find me at cringingcalum.tumblr.com where you can feel free to bother me about writing more


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